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3 questions about anime


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jetz



Joined: 31 Jan 2007
Posts: 2148
Location: Manila, Philippines
PostPosted: Tue Mar 27, 2007 7:04 am Reply with quote
I have 3 questions about anime that I have been pondering on for a while now. The first one is are all animation coming from Japan considered anime? Or is it just the ones that are exported overseas considered anime?

Number two, does the drawing style of animation indicate whether it is or it isn't anime? I mean, looking at how an animated show is drawn, I can more or less tell if it is anime or not. I'm pretty sure Disney's Cinderella isn't anime, and I am sure that School Rumble is based on the illustrations, even if I didn't know that Disney's Cinderella was made by Americans, and School Rumble was from Japan.

As a follow up to the previous question, most anime are hand drawn, and a lot of American made animation these days are computer generated, does the technique tell us whether or not it is anime?

Number three, do we consider "anime" coming from other countries anime? These days there are a lot of "anime" coming from the US, and I believe we have some in the Philippines too, but are they really anime?

To the super-otakus there please forgive my ignorance Laughing . I've been watching anime since I was really young, but I wasn't familiar with the terms, genres, language until this year, and I can't say I was much of an Otaku before now because I focused only on watching the anime and not understanding anime as a whole.
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Steventheeunuch





PostPosted: Tue Mar 27, 2007 7:27 am Reply with quote
jetz wrote:
I have 3 questions about anime that I have been pondering on for a while now. The first one is are all animation coming from Japan considered anime? Or is it just the ones that are exported overseas considered anime?


All animation from Japan is considered Anime for the most part. There are scant numbers of titles produced in Japan which are not actually Anime, but they're the exception, not the rule.

Quote:
Number two, does the drawing style of animation indicate whether it is or it isn't anime? I mean, looking at how an animated show is drawn, I can more or less tell if it is anime or not. I'm pretty sure Disney's Cinderella isn't anime, and I am sure that School Rumble is based on the illustrations, even if I didn't know that Disney's Cinderella was made by Americans, and School Rumble was from Japan.


No. Anime is no one paticular style or genre, though it does have its own conventions and stereotypes as per any medium, genre or whatnot. Take Mind Game and compared it to another theatrical movie like Wasted XIII, Or maybe Legend of the Galactic Heroes and compare it to FLCL. All totally different.

Quote:
As a follow up to the previous question, most anime are hand drawn, and a lot of American made animation these days are computer generated, does the technique tell us whether or not it is anime?


You can tell by who produces and directs the animation/program. If it's by far a majority of Japanese people in the credits, then it's more than likely Anime.

Quote:
Number three, do we consider "anime" coming from other countries anime? These days there are a lot of "anime" coming from the US, and I believe we have some in the Philippines too, but are they really anime?


Anime only means Animation from Japan. It's used liberally as a sort of term for anything with big eyes, but Chinese animation is not Japanese Animation, nor is Korean or Russian, so therefore it's not Anime.
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undeadben



Joined: 06 May 2006
Posts: 1212
Location: West Texas
PostPosted: Tue Mar 27, 2007 7:47 am Reply with quote
You'll get a whole lot of different answers to these questions and some are very liable to open a can of worms. Here is an actually pretty good wiki article which will answer most of your questions:

anime

Now my own answer to your second question is that while many anime are created in similar styles, the vast majority are not. Anime has many influences, as does any art, and while some creators will use known styles more, others will try to be more realistic, while others still will want to use their own unique artwork. It's impossible to pinpoint a single art style in any element.

In answer to your last question, and I'm para-quoting myself from an older thread:

Quote:
...someone will eventually post that the word 'anime' is short for animation in Japanese, and say that everything animated is anime. In my opinion, this is logical only if [you live in Japan and] your primary language is Japanese. The usage of the word in any place other than Japan, or for those whose primary language is not Japanese, is to refer to animation originating in Japan [only].

... honestly, I say just establish your own meaning and go with it. If you ask ... you may come out more confused. Even if you think my post is reasonable and makes sense, you will probably see at least 10 other posts with vastly different opinions, in agreement or disagreement, that all make more sense to you than mine.
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Obaa-chan



Joined: 18 Feb 2007
Posts: 16
Location: Israel
PostPosted: Tue Mar 27, 2007 7:55 am Reply with quote
Quote:

All animation from Japan is considered Anime for the most part. There are scant numbers of titles produced in Japan which are not actually Anime, but they're the exception, not the rule.


Steven, would you please give an example of such a title?
This kinda undermines the notion that anime = japanese animation (a notion wich I don't really agree with, btw)
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HitokiriShadow



Joined: 09 May 2005
Posts: 6251
PostPosted: Tue Mar 27, 2007 10:04 am Reply with quote
Obaa-chan wrote:
Steven, would you please give an example of such a title?


Some titles are a collaboration and while a Japanese studio does the animation, it was a U.S. company that originated it and did pretty much everything else and had it created for a U.S. audience. G.I. Joe Sigma Six is an example. I think Spider Riders might be, but I'm not sure. But these are few and far between

The other tricky part is that a lot of animation is outsourced to Korea, so most anime are not purely Japanese produced products.

I basically agree with undeadben on the definition of anime, but with some clarifications. The show was created by Japanese companies with mostly Japanese employees (and Japanese employees in the key positions and most aspects of productions) and targeted primarily at Japanese viewers.
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Lord Dolmus



Joined: 10 Jan 2007
Posts: 97
PostPosted: Tue Mar 27, 2007 10:17 am Reply with quote
Quote:
All animation from Japan is considered Anime for the most part. There are scant numbers of titles produced in Japan which are not actually Anime, but they're the exception, not the rule.


Sorry if it seems like i'm hi-jacking this post but I just have one little question. I've heard about how Avatar the last airbender and Oban Star Racers aren't anime so my question is, what if a japanese person, in japan made an anime that looked just like Dexter's Lab, would it still be anime?
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HitokiriShadow



Joined: 09 May 2005
Posts: 6251
PostPosted: Tue Mar 27, 2007 10:58 am Reply with quote
Yes, it would. Anme is not an art style and doesn't matter what it looks like. There have been some anime that don't look like what one would typically think of as anime. Dead Leaves and Super Milk-chan come to mind.
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zombie828



Joined: 14 Nov 2006
Posts: 62
PostPosted: Tue Mar 27, 2007 11:00 am Reply with quote
Lord Dolmus wrote:
Quote:
All animation from Japan is considered Anime for the most part. There are scant numbers of titles produced in Japan which are not actually Anime, but they're the exception, not the rule.


Sorry if it seems like i'm hi-jacking this post but I just have one little question. I've heard about how Avatar the last airbender and Oban Star Racers aren't anime so my question is, what if a japanese person, in japan made an anime that looked just like Dexter's Lab, would it still be anime?

Yes, if it's animated in Japan then it's anime. Final Fantasy VII Advent Children (completely 3D animated) is anime too, since it came from Japan.

However, I have no clue if it'd still be considered anime if a bunch of Japanese people moved to America and made an anime without the help of any Americans.
Is anime about the people who make it, or the country that makes it?
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Lord Dolmus



Joined: 10 Jan 2007
Posts: 97
PostPosted: Tue Mar 27, 2007 2:11 pm Reply with quote
Quote:
Is anime about the people who make it, or the country that makes it?


That's a million dollar question.
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BrothersElric



Joined: 06 Dec 2006
Posts: 1996
PostPosted: Tue Mar 27, 2007 3:40 pm Reply with quote
Lord Dolmus wrote:
Quote:
All animation from Japan is considered Anime for the most part. There are scant numbers of titles produced in Japan which are not actually Anime, but they're the exception, not the rule.


Sorry if it seems like i'm hi-jacking this post but I just have one little question. I've heard about how Avatar the last airbender and Oban Star Racers aren't anime so my question is, what if a japanese person, in japan made an anime that looked just like Dexter's Lab, would it still be anime?


Yes it would. There are plenty of anime based on non-Japanese things like Gankutsuou: The Count of Montie Cristo, and, from what I understand, anime series based on Les Miserables and the Del Tora book series.
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Nagisa
Moderator


Joined: 19 Aug 2003
Posts: 6128
Location: Atlanta-ish, Jawjuh
PostPosted: Tue Mar 27, 2007 7:15 pm Reply with quote
zombie828 wrote:
Is anime about the people who make it, or the country that makes it?


The word "anime" is really nothing more than a term used to by non-Japanese speaking countries to define animation coming from a specific geographic region (that, of course, being Japan). It says nothing about the quality of the animation, the content of the animation, the style of the animation, or the relevance of the animation, and simply describes where the animation came from, using a word from that region's own native language ("anime" being a shortening of "a-ni-me-shu-n," which is "animation" written in katakana).

I personally specify that if the show came from a Japanese production studio, with the individuals at the head of production (director, producer, writer, etc.) working for that studio at the time the show is produced, then it's anime. The term does not exclude on the basis of race; if an American or a European or a Korean person is working for a Japanese production house (say, Sunrise or Madhouse) and produces a show, then he or she had a hand in producing anime. And an exception is made for simple outsourcing jobs, like doing in-between animation and similar gruntwork. If an American studio outsources in-betweening to Japan, then the show is not anime because that job is still being done under the American studio's direction. On the other hand, if Japan outsources in-betweening to Korea, the show is still anime because that job is still being overseen by the Japanese production studio that outsourced the work.
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Ichigo77



Joined: 10 Dec 2006
Posts: 389
Location: California
PostPosted: Tue Mar 27, 2007 8:10 pm Reply with quote
Another thing to add is that in Japan (atleast from what I got) anime is used for all animation no matter where it is from. Here we say cartoon if it is from America and anime if from Japan. Same with comics, here say say comics if it is American and manga if it is Japanese. Over there they use anime and manga for everything. When I would talk to them I would say cartoon or anime depending on what it was and some would ask what a cartoon was. When I heard them talk I heard them use anime so when I heard them talking about Spider-Man they would say "Spider-Man anime" and they just know it is American as opposed to if we heard Spider-Man anime we would think of a Spider-Man cartoon from Japan. Then when I gave the people I was staying with some comics they refered to them as "X-Men manga, Spider-Man manga, and Super Man manga."
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Lord Dolmus



Joined: 10 Jan 2007
Posts: 97
PostPosted: Wed Mar 28, 2007 8:51 am Reply with quote
Quote:
The word "anime" is really nothing more than a term used to by non-Japanese speaking countries to define animation coming from a specific geographic region (that, of course, being Japan). It says nothing about the quality of the animation, the content of the animation, the style of the animation, or the relevance of the animation, and simply describes where the animation came from, using a word from that region's own native language ("anime" being a shortening of "a-ni-me-shu-n," which is "animation" written in katakana).

I personally specify that if the show came from a Japanese production studio, with the individuals at the head of production (director, producer, writer, etc.) working for that studio at the time the show is produced, then it's anime. The term does not exclude on the basis of race; if an American or a European or a Korean person is working for a Japanese production house (say, Sunrise or Madhouse) and produces a show, then he or she had a hand in producing anime. And an exception is made for simple outsourcing jobs, like doing in-between animation and similar gruntwork. If an American studio outsources in-betweening to Japan, then the show is not anime because that job is still being done under the American studio's direction. On the other hand, if Japan outsources in-betweening to Korea, the show is still anime because that job is still being overseen by the Japanese production studio that outsourced the work.


So if an american person had done a lot of work for a series, under a japanese name, it's anime? I hope I asked that correctly...
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jetz



Joined: 31 Jan 2007
Posts: 2148
Location: Manila, Philippines
PostPosted: Wed Mar 28, 2007 10:15 am Reply with quote
thanks for the answers everyone. I understand most of it, but there are still things I don't get.. can someone answer Lord Dolmus' question?
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Kidder



Joined: 15 May 2006
Posts: 188
Location: Bat country! >.<
PostPosted: Wed Mar 28, 2007 10:48 am Reply with quote
Do you mean a Japanese-American (i.e. his/her origins are in Japan, but he/she is an American citizen)? Or a non-Japanese American who changed their name to Japanese?

They way I understand it and from what other members have said, in both cases it is the nationality of the majority of staff and the companies involved in the production of an animation that defines whether it is anime or not.

EDIT: lol should have read the context of the question better... but I think the question is a little pointless (no offense meant).


Last edited by Kidder on Wed Mar 28, 2007 10:55 am; edited 1 time in total
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